The biggest game in stand-up
Sebastian Maniscalco is playing four shows at the Paramount
Exactly no one was surprised when promoters added an extra Sebastian Maniscalco show to the punchy stand-up’s Paramount Theatre visit this weekend.
And another. And another. The 45-year-old, who grew up in a boisterous Sicilian family in Chicago’s Arlington Heights suburb, just sold out four Madison Square Garden shows in January — “the most tickets in a weekend for any comedy engagement in the history of the Garden,” according to Billboard, which named him its Comedian of the Year for 2018.
Last year, Maniscalco also posted the highest-ever gross for a comic in North America on Billboard’s Boxscore, with $8.3 million in ticket sales and an attendance count of 72,960, Billboard reported, beating Dave Chappelle’s 2014 record.
“I feel like the notoriety has definitely increased, but not to a point where it’s cumbersome at all to my lifestyle,” Maniscalco said over the phone this month before his March 22 and 24 Paramount dates (with two shows per night). “I’m still kind of under-the-radar a little bit and not a mainstream guy when you think of TV or movies.”
Perhaps, but Maniscalco’s compact and energetic stage presence, centrist humor, and utterly obsessive timing have gotten the attention of Hollywood.
He secured a small role in “Green Book,” a film that won the Oscar for Best Picture last month, and has another in Martin Scorsese’s upcoming epic “The Irishman,” which will be released on Netflix this year.
Add to that his tightly wound Netflix special, “Stay Hungry,” which was recorded at a sold-out Radio City Music Hall and re-
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leased in January, and you’ve got more activity in the first few months of 2019 than most comics will enjoy in their entire careers.
We caught up with Maniscalco to talk about his sold-out shows, slowburn ascent and new(ish) daughter before the Denver stop of his Stay Hungry Tour. (Note: As of press time, there were still a handful of tickets for the March 24 shows, via altitudetickets.com).
A: I never really think of it in those terms, but that was the biggest thing I’d ever done at that point. I relish that excitement because you don’t know where your career’s going to go. When something big happens you think, ‘Wow, how do you top that?’ And it just keeps snowballing. But for me, that was kind of the start of me doing stand-up for a living. Prior to that, for 7 or 8 years of doing comedy, I was holding down a day job waiting tables.
A: That’s interesting . ... My material is based in family, and I feel like no matter where in life you talk about relationships — whether it be father, son, wife, husband, daughter — those are things everybody can relate to, regardless of economic background or whatever else. So I’ve always been very cautious to talk about things that people are doing on a day-today basis. I’m living the same life everybody else is in regards to interviewing for preschools out here in L.A. I have things going on in my life every father and parent is going through.
A: Lately I’ve been going to toddler groups with my wife and interacting with parents, and I’ve never done that before. So I think when I’m up there talking about these situations, people can say, “Oh my God, that’s true. I’ve done that!” Some of these comedians get too successful and all they can talk about are all the celebrities they’re meeting. Everyday Joes can’t relate to that.
A: I’m really kind of still on my way up. I definitely have a core fan base, but I believe there’s a lot more people out there that still need to be introduced to my comedy.
A: I went to a grocery store yesterday and took a couple of photos with some people, but it’s not bad. If I could just stay at this point I’d be happy.
Q : And yet you keep cranking out new material. How prolific are you?
A: I’m always writing material, so the act is never the same when I return to a city. I’d say what I’m doing now is about 75 percent new and 25 percent older stuff or “Stay Hungry” stuff. I don’t want to come and revisit a city with the same material. You do that, you’re dead. After you repeat it twice, forget it.
A: I’m not saying you’ve got to burn the act entirely. I just don’t write that fast to where I can come up with a whole new hour and 20 minutes every year. I need to live my life in order to draw material.
A: I’m doing everything from me going to these toddler groups to having a first birthday party for my daughter and everything in between. I’m doing a bit that I’m really, really excited about where it’s me attending the Oscars — and it’s not what you think. It’s about how out of place I felt there, and it’s very self-deprecating. I fell down a flight of stairs while I was there!
It’s just the honesty of life. I love to talk about things in a way where I’m kind of the odd man out, which I’ve always been since childhood. I was never in popular groups, always on the perimeter. So I’m relating that to going to the Oscars, which definitely resonates with a lot of people. I’ve got to stay fresh, too, and I’ve got to be excited about the material. When you say the same thing over and over again it becomes harder to make it sound like it’s the first time saying it.
A: Being a non-movie guy and only doing a handful of movies — and then to get the biggest part I’ve had to date — you can’t even write that. For me to be there was bizarre. My whole story about (the is me trying to get on the first level to get on stage when it wins, because I was sitting in mezzanine 3. So that whole story is kind of my adventure of getting from mezzanine 3 to the stage, and how that never materialized. I basically watched the entire cast and crew receive the Oscar while I was in the lobby. It’s one of those things where you’re in the best movie and again, on the outside looking in. It’s really a fun story, and it wasn’t as glamorous as you would think.
A: We’re opening up some new markets because you can’t keep going back to the Northeast, which is kind of my bread and butter. So places like Louisiana and Mississippi, and (cities) like San Antonio, Cedar Rapids, Des Moines — places where they’re not huge metro areas, but more of what we call “B markets” in the comedy game. Those definitely need some attention. Albuquerque is a market I haven’t been to. You’ve got to tour internationally as well. You can’t keep twisting the sponge here. You’ve got to go to Australia (or) the Scandinavian countries.
A: It’s been a dream of mine to play Italy or even Sicily. But first of all, they don’t get a lot of the language. There’s a barrier because Italy’s one of the only countries that says, “Screw English. We’re speaking our own language!” So that’s one of my goals. But Sicily is a place where English is not even thought of. Maybe more in Rome or Milan?
A: It’s got Scorcese, De Niro, Pacino, Pesci — guys I grew up watching in these iconic films. The next thing I know, I’m in a movie with them and acting with them, so I absorbed it like a sponge. There were so many things going on on-set. Martin Scorsese comes out and tells you what he wants and what he’s looking for, but he’s doing it in a way that’s very nurturing and supportive. I don’t work with a lot of directors, because in stand-up you’re your own writer, producer, director and actor. But I was thrust into a situation where a lot of things were going on around me and that was an adjustment as a comedian. I haven’t seen a lick of the movie, so I don’t know what it all is yet. But I’m so excited for it to come out. It’s sort of Scorsese’s last film in the gangster trilogy of “Goodfellas” and “Casino.” This is the third installment.
A: I don’t think I’ve done enough acting to where it has affected my stage perOscars) formance. Whereas my stage performance has definitely affected my acting. In movies, you can’t behave the way you do on stage, because it’s two different things. For a stage performer, everything’s very big and broad — the facial expressions, the wide-open eyes, eyebrows up, forehead wrinkled. With acting, none of that plays on film. It’s very contained. You can’t be flailing your arms in a scene. It’s two different muscles you’re working.
A: I always go into situations just assuming that they don’t know who I am, which is fine by me. But when I do (get recognized), I’m a little taken aback and surprised.
Six to eight months ago, my phone was blowing up as I was doing a show, so I came off stage to a ton of text messages telling me that The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) had mentioned me on his Instagram. If you follow The Rock, he sometimes takes a photo of what he’s watching on his laptop as he devours about 35 pounds of sushi, and he had given a shout-out to me. And I’m sitting there going, “I haven’t gotten this much response from anything I’ve ever done!” The Rock shoots that out to 135 million people who follow him and I had cousins I hadn’t spoken to in 20 years going, “The Rock loves your stuff!”
So you never know who’s out there. I’m bouncing around from city to city doing my stand-up, but I don’t know how far the tentacles reach.